Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Harvey C. Mansfield ISBN: 0226500438 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic ...
Comment: "The Prince" is one of the classics you cannot do without, if you want to understand the dynamics of power. Here, Machiavelli tells us how to achieve (and mantain) power.
This short book is profoundly innovative, because Machiavelli leaves aside everything that is not directly relevant to political theory, thus giving the opportunity for the birth of an autonomous political science. Previously, considerations of rigth and wrong were deeply connected with debates regarding power, the good prince or the perfect regime. After "The Prince" that wasn't necessarily true anymore.
Machiavelli believed that, in order to be able to study correctly political facts and events, he needed to get rid of the illusions that had clouded the vision of previous generations (for example, the possibility of eliminating evil). In that respect, he could be described as the first truly modern thinker.
Sheldon Wolin says that Machiavelli gave the new science of the art of ruling as an alternative to the old principle of legitimacy, promising that he could make "a new prince look old". In that respect, "The Prince" was groundbreaking...
There are many more ideas in "The Prince" you might find interesting, even if you don't agree with them. Strange as it may seem, this book is as relevant today as it was the day it was written. Of course, some parts of it are outdated, but others might help you to understand the way some leaders behave.
In my opinion, that is the main contribution of "The Prince". It helped giving political theory a new direction,yes, but it also allows us to understand a little better what is happening nowadays. I think that is the crucial mission of political books: help us to understand the world, in order to be able to improve it later.
My advise?: read it --> it is a classic that somehow has managed to maintain its edge :)
Rating: 3
Summary: Definitely worth spending a few hours on
Comment: This little volume makes for some entertaining reading but it is not the supreme Renaissance literary or philosophical masterwork, as some would like us to believe. Based on admittedly sound insights in mass psychology and geopolitics, Machiavelli formulates some practical guidelines for autocratic rulers, helping them to seize power and to hold on to it. By no means the author's intention is to instill his target audience with cruelty and bad faith. His reasoning is thoroughly pragmatic in the sense that it outlines the implications of a particular course of action, substantiated by concrete examples from Machiavelli's own time and from Antiquity.
I would say that many observations are still relevant and applicable today. In that sense, The Prince is as good a book on leadership as you will find on the shelves under the Management heading today. As a management consultant, I was quite sensitive to the point that is made in two of the final sections of the book - A prince's personal staff' and 'How flatterers must be shunned' - about the relationship between the prince and his advisers. Machiavelli makes a very good point when he holds forth that "The choosing of ministers is a matter of no little importance for a prince; and their worth depends on the sagacity of the prince himself." In other words: a leader gets the advice that he deserves. If the consultancy profession has been taken under fire lately because of malpractices, charlatanism and greed, then this is to a significant extent rooted in the immature and opportunistic attitude of many clients vis-à-vis their advisers. If external consultants are drawn in to turn the odds in political battles or to relieve the client of responsibilities about decisions he ought to take himself, then, yes, you can be sure that the sharks will come and take their due. It's a matter of choice and vigilance. Machiavelli knew it all along.
(Review was based on George Ball's translation in the Penguin Classics series)
Rating: 5
Summary: The ethics of responsibility
Comment: I have recently re-read this always useful classic on politics. Without hypocrisies, Machiavelli recommends to the Prince that he resigns from pursuing the utopia of what "should be" and he elaborates on his recommendations with the aim put on political responsibility: to govern is, before everything else, to keep power. He who can not maintain his power is not fit to govern. He who follows a naïve and idealist morality, is ignoring the rules of power (which were certainly very harsh in his day), and so he can't govern well, since he will make mistake after mistake.
Of course this book should be read according to its historical background, but its deep message is still valid today, even for all of its rudenness: politics has its own morality, the morality of prudence and of responsibility. Man is NOT born good. A naïve ruler who is not aware of this and who does nothing to prevent treason is incurring in a major political responsibility, for he will put the State at great risk of falling in the hands of selfish and plain bad people.
Machiavelli's book is not about political theory, but political practice. Much of his specific courses of action are impracticable today (or maybe not that much). Now that we have democracy, human rights and worldwide surveillance of rulers, methods are different, but the principle of poliical responsibility is as valid as it was five hundred years ago.
 |
Title: The Art of War by Samuel B. Griffith, Sun-Tzu, Sunzi ISBN: 0195014766 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 1971 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
 |
Title: The Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli, Ellis Farneworth ISBN: 030681076X Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
 |
Title: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Martin Edward Malia ISBN: 0451527100 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
 |
Title: Wealth of Nations (Great Minds Series) by Adam Smith ISBN: 0879757051 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: December, 1991 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
 |
Title: On War by Karl Von Clausewitz, Carl Von Clausewitz, Anatol Rapoport, Carl Von Clausewitz ISBN: 0140444270 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: November, 1982 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
